Video Review Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVsGvTb5F8E
Heist #01: Higurashi – When They Cry: Kai [Season 2]
Story-line: - C – 7
In terms of the story-line behind Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, I was informed that this season contained the answer arc portion to all the mysteries surrounding the season one adaptation. The mysteries consisted of the mysterious deaths, the outbreak in Hinamizawa, and the person who was behind it all, and yes, that is exactly what we received. Now the problems, I have with this season of Higurashi would be its take on the horror & gore scenes, and its structure. Everything regarding the answers given for the outbreak, Rika’s powers, and the mysterious deaths, I can get behind to some degree, but these three categories kill the story for the show a little bit. And I will kindly explain my reasons why, starting with its take with the horror and gore.
In season one, we were shown to have scenes where the characters would undergo some type of mental struggle which would cause them to commit deadly acts of violence on others. Heck, we even seen an older woman endlessly stab a young child, for her sins. However, the problems I found in the horror and gore in Higurashi Kai is that it seems a bit fluffy and nonexistent to be a sequel for Higurashi. I admit we do receive scenes where the characters are abused, or beaten, but it seems that in certain moments, we receive a fade out or other type of transition to get back on track with the explanation of the story.
Another example of where the horror and gore seem to take a nose dive could be seen in episode four where;
Example – Episode 04: a policeman is killed by a member of the Yamainu and it gets covered by some type of Red Screen which is seemingly supposed to symbolize the blood shed from this man. And I found that to be quite bothersome.
There are other moments where the deaths to seem to follow this format, but I wouldn’t count it as censorship in the slightest since the series still has its crazed moments through facial expressions, abusive moments with Satoko, and certain scenes consisting of the gore, but it feels as if the series was trying to erase the darkness that it once had to focus on answering the questions from season one.
With regards to the Anime’s structure, I found the issues to lie within certain episodes, preferably episode 14 which is the start of the festival Accompanying Arc of the series. Now in episode fourteen we receive the history behind Miyo’s backstory and how she became the woman she is now. However, I didn’t find it to be an enjoyable experience since the episode kept shifting to her adult and child form within the first ten to so minutes. One bit, we get her suffering as a child, and then the next she’s accepting some type of encouragement from someone, and it seemed pretty odd. Thankfully, it stopped near the end of the episode, but it seemed off to me at the time. Another instance where the Anime’s structure seemed to be off can be seen in episode twelve
Example 2 – Episode 12: where Rika decides to spill the beans behind the outbreak and history of Hinamizawa. The scene does become tense as she explains her points to her friends, which makes the episode not too much of a drag, but the amount of information dropped in one episode could be overwhelming to some individuals.
Other than that, I didn’t find the whole supernatural premise behind Rika’s powers to seem that outlandish considering how there seemed to be some set-up of this in the prior arc, but I did feel as though some of the horror and gore elements, structure, and small chances of hope were quite bothersome after witnessing the amount of suspicion and realism, left behind in season one.
Alright now normally Mecha would crank out the gamepad for the character portion, but I believe we’ll just let the menu of Z do that for us, folks.
“Fades Out White”
Characters: - B – 8
After having these characters go through the detective’s analysis machine in Higurashi season one, let’s see how they stack up in season two, but this time, I will be grouping them together. So let’s start with Keiichi Maebara and Rika Furude.
Keiichi/Rika – As you all know Keiichi was the boy next door type of character who received plenty of screen time in the last season of the Anime. We got to learn a bit more about his character in terms of his internal/external conflicts with the girls during the Spirited Away Arc and his life as a teenager in the city before moving into Hinamizawa. However, how does he stack up in season two? In this season I feel that Keiichi gathered a strong sense of unintentional character development, being that he developed as a character, but doesn’t know he did, due to it being a different world form of his character as explained through Rika’s dialog in episode six of the Anime. A couple of examples of this unintentional development can be seen during
Example Keiichi – Massacre Arc –Episodes 07 – 13: the Massacre arc in episodes seven through thirteen. He shows this development by giving Mion the doll and tells her he views her as a girlish type of woman, which in the prior arcs he felt she was a bit boyish. Rika even states that Keiichi has learned to accept Mion’s girlish feelings toward his character by doing this. Another moment would include this example where Keiichi stands in front of Shion to prevent her from killing Satoko’s uncle, which shows that he believes that killing him would not be the best solution. And this provides more evidence that he has grown as a character.
Although there are some instances where Keiichi seems to be a random stock character, if we take into account that this is the series’ second season and group this with season one that would make him a strong dynamic or round character, in which these examples prove that even though he may fall victim to pessimism that he has knowledge now of what not to do.
RIKA – Now in terms of Rika Furude’s character, she obtains the amount of screen time that she desperately needed in season one. Since she is now our “main” protagonist of the series, she is expected to have the toughest challenges and best growth out of all of the characters in terms of her role in the plot, and quite frankly, she does receive this. As we start to learn more about Rika’s character in terms of her origin, powers, and goal to defeat fate, I felt that her mysterious stock character role changed to being that of a more realistic human being. Although human beings don’t have god-like powers like Rika’s character, what I’m referring to is her emotions throughout the run of the series and how they tend to change.
For example, if we take a look at Rika’s character during the beginning of the series she can seem a bit annoying and boring to some since we get the rinse and repeat scenario of her feeling optimistic about one small change in the world, and when something flips it up, she converts back to pessimism which I find to be a humanistic part of her character since human emotions do tend to converge from happy to sad most of the time. However, her true ounce of character growth can be seen during this example in the
Example Rika – Massacre Arc – Episode 10/11 – Massacre arc near episode ten or eleven when she realizes that thinking about waiting for another miracle to happen would be pointless to some degree, and that taking an effort to save Satoko and not being a useless spectator would be the best option to finding this peaceful world she’s been seeking.
Although, like Keiichi, she does end up slipping and falling to the ounces of despair, and desperation, she is able to realize that fate can be changed through her words with Keiichi. This may be the reason why I grouped these two together since Keiichi is the foil to her character during this arc, and gives Rika the idea of standing against fate, which is one of Rika’s biggest challenges she ends up defeating by the end of season two.
Hanyuu/Takano – Alright, next up we have the duo of our mentor character Hanyuu Furude, and our main antagonist or bad girl, being Miyoko Takano. Let’s start with Hanyuu’s character. Hanyuu is the calm, clumsy and newest protagonist of the group. We learn that she plays the mentor role for Rika’s character and that she is the one responsible for helping Rika travel to all of these worlds to find that “just right” world. She seems to be Oyashiro Sama herself, and we gain slight information about her character. For me, I felt that her character seemed a bit underwhelming in terms of her backstory, maybe due to the fact that I wanted to see either a flashback of her past life, as she stated that she died to protect the sins of man, or the villagers at the time. However, her growth as a character does come out to some degree.
An example of where Hanyuu received the much needed character development could be seen in the beginning stages of the Massacre Arc where she seemed to have less confidence in Rika’s ability to find this peaceful world, when everything was starting to go her way. But by the end of the series, we learn that her character is the missing piece that the others needed in order to find this peaceful world, and this snaps Hanyuu into believing that a peaceful world is possible. Though I found her character to be slightly underwhelming to some degree, I still found Hanyuu to be an enjoyable protagonist.
Takano – Now in terms of Takano’s character, she seems to have the role of the antagonist in this season. She also receives an intense amount of characterization because of this role, and I found her story leading up to who she is now, to be pretty interesting. We learn about how she lost her parents to some bus accident, goes through a life of despair in an orphanage, and meets her adopted grandfather Hifumi and other key characters that push her to pursue this goal of revealing the truth behind the Hinamizawa syndrome to avenge her grandfather’s pride. She went from being this side/questionable researcher stock character from season one, to being a fully developed antagonist in season two, and I didn’t seem to be bothered with this conclusion.
If you remember what the detective said in season one, you could pinpoint various hints regarding her role as being the true villain behind the outbreak, and I really can’t disagree with his claim here. I do admit, that some of the events with her character that lead up to the end of the arc were quite weird and strange, but I felt that since her character was able to provide some type of twist in the story, and interesting information of why she’s doing the things she’s doing, that I can’t really knock on her for that reason. Overall, these two characters seem to tie together in terms of a moral dispute, and that is why I find both of them to be interesting in the slightest.
Shion/Satoko – Alright, now it’s time to go to our next duo being Shion and Satoko’s character. Let’s start with Shion Sonozaki. From what you have learned from the previous season, Shion wasn’t the best when it came to who to trust after losing her love interest, being Satoshi Houjo to the point of where she would end up killing almost everybody that she felt didn’t seem kind to her. With that being said, how does she stand up in season two?
Well, in terms of season two Shion has fallen prey to mixed development within the series which kind of bothers be to some degree. At certain points she does seem to gather some type of patience and kindness with this concept of unintentional development, however, when it came down to the decisions of how to solve certain issues, she resulted to murder being the best answer which kind of loses her development points with me.
An example of this moment could be seen in episode 8
Example Shion – Episode 8 – during the Massacre arc where Shion fails to come to terms with having Teppei survive, with the only way of her changing her views was to result to violence to beat down Keiichi during this scenario. I understand that most people have to do some act of violence, to let out steam, but in Shion’s case she doesn’t have any sign of growth since she still clings to Satoshi a bit too much than she needs to. Nonetheless, Shion is a great character in terms of her representation as a real world girlfriend, possibly, but I wished she could grow out of this phase just a tad.
With respect to Satoko’s character, we learned that she could be bratty, comedic, and fun during the lighthearted moments, but with respect to negativity, she holds her emotions in and views this to be some act of courage and strength. With that being said, how does she hold up in Kai?
Well in terms of the Massacre arc, Satoko does become the Macguffin of the tale, since Teppei Houjo abuses, and threatens her with Satoshi’s room being on the line for her. In terms of character growth, Satoko doesn’t necessarily grow on her own accord. The only reason for Satoko’s character development during this arc was because of her friend’s efforts to save her, and is this necessarily a bad thing, to me, not really. This event in itself symbolizes the theme of friendship that Ryukishi seemed to want the story’s main focus to be about. And with this in mind, I can’t really argue with the author of this tale since it showcases the strong bond that Satoko has with her comrades.
Regardless of this fact, would I have loved to see Satoko grow on her own, and tell the Counseling Center the truth, certainly, but from looking at it from a moral and realistic perspective, it wouldn’t be possible due to the events that transpired after this arc? Overall, I found the needed development, expansion on her character in terms of her family’s inner conflict, and her infection explanation, to help her character recover from the events in season one.
Also before we shift, I wanted to mention the reason for their groupage, was due to the fact that both of them found Satoshi to be vital in terms of their characterization and growth.
Mion/Rena – Alright, now it’s time to go to our final duo being Mion and Rena’s character. In terms of Mion’s character, the problem that I and the detective came across was that she seemed to be the weakest character of the batch, besides Rika. The only sign of grace to her character was how she played the foil role to most of the characters in the story and seemed like a plot device for the big Shion reveal, and that’s it. So, how does she rank in season two?
Well, in terms of season two, I believe Mion gathered the spotlight she deserved in terms of helping certain characters move past their endeavors, but she seemed to still be the weakest character in terms of any sign of development due to her not really having any sign of personal issues in season one. As a plot device, Mion played a perfect role in the story. Examples of this would be during the events of episode seven where Rena explains that the reason for her not changing would be by consulting with Mion, and Shion evens admits to doing the same. However, we never receive any major issues when it came to Mion’s character, and believe it’s because she didn’t really come across to having any problems in that season besides the Spirited Away arc bits. Overall, Mion although characterized a lot to some, doesn’t seem to showcase any signs of development.
RENA – Alright now we’ve reached our final protagonist on this board, and that’s Ryuugu Rena. Now in terms of the previous season, Rena’s character seemed to have redeemed a lot of character development during the final arc of season one. We learned that she had problems with her family, and her pastime as a young child, but ends up overcoming this struggle by learning how to trust her friends. Now how does she fair in season one?
Now since Rena has developed from the events in season one, I felt that her character in this season just reflects on those ideals to the point where she is able to contribute to her friend’s goals toward their own sense of happiness which makes her an integral piece to this season’s plot. She does endure some type of internal struggle near the start of Kai, but since she learned how to trust her friends from the other worlds, unintentionally, she was able to defeat this mindset easily to the point where her life became great and wonderful. The only problem I can see with her character is that she ends up playing the therapist role toward her allies, but since she kind of settled the events in season one, I can’t really complain here. Overall, I did find Rena’s character bland throughout this season of Higurashi, but due to her integration in the plot, I don’t really hold this trait against her to a small degree.
Now the reason why I grouped these together would be due to the fact that they seemed to be the overseers of the group to make sure no one gets engulfed by the darkness surrounding the village.
Minor Characters – With regards to the minor characters in this arc, I’ll just make this a bit brief. I feel that after the events of season one, that each and almost every minor character gained some type of character development throughout the story. A few examples would include:
Ooishi coming to terms that the Sonozaki family weren’t involved with his friend’s murder, thereby helping them defeat and trick Takano near the end of the story.
We learn that Irie, seems to be pursuing some type of medical career to avenge his father for his crimes, and we get to see more signs of characterization behind Tomitake, Akasaka, and even the side characters in terms of their goals, roles in the plot, and other aspects leading up to the very end of the story.
I feel the side characters all gained some type role in the story that either helped them grow for the better or dive deeper for the worst. Although, I feel that some side characters should have received a bit more screen time, I loved the fact that Studio Deen or Ryukishi gave them some type of characterization so they wouldn’t seem fake or unrealistic to the eye.
Soundtrack: - B – 8
For this season’s soundtrack, I found it quite meaningful and depressing compared to its season one counterpart, but in a good light. The opening theme titled, “Naraku No Hana” by Eiko Shimamiya was a perfect match for the series. The opening theme through its art direction, composition, and vocalist’s performance captures the motive of this season, quite nicely. It truly capture’s Rika’s desperation to escape this destined fate of June 1983 through it’s slow start to its incredible build up near the middle of the song as if this is Rika herself saying that I can defeat fate. I especially loved how they switched up the opening theme’s art near the reveal of the villain behind the outbreak as an attempt to make it seem fresh and new. Anyway, the opening theme was able to mix together these opposite emotions so well, and I couldn’t be prouder. Another highlight for the soundtrack used in this series would be the voice acting. And sadly for you English dub fans, if there is any, there is no dub for this season as of right now.
Speaking of the JP voice acting for the show, I believe all the voices fit well for the characters. Similar to season one, their performances during the child-friendly, and critical moments was spot on. During the comedic bits of the Anime, I do admit to chuckling to some of the jokes the characters would make because of how the child-friendly art complimented their wacky voices during these moments. However, the points where the voice acting kicked it up to high gear would be during the breakdowns of these characters.
An example where the voice acting really hit home in terms of breakdowns could be seen in Takano’s backstory, preferably in episode fourteen;
Example 1 Episode 14 – Festival Accompanying Arc: Where Takano has escaped from the orphanage and comes face to face with one of the workers. She ends up biting one his thumbs in which the worker gets infuriated with her, and is about to deal a heavy blow. And what makes this scene terrifying is Takano’s scream as he approaches her. Being able to imitate that level of terror in a young girl’s voice made me quite impressed with her voice actress.
And quite frankly there are more voice acting build up scenes like this that just add to the horror/thriller lore we come to expect from this series. Although the horror and mystery aspects of the second season wasn’t near the exact level of it’s first, the voice acting in the show makes up for some of its lost atmosphere.
In light of the OST and ending theme of season two’s adaptation, I found the ending theme in this series to stand out a tad bit more than season one’s ending theme. While in terms of the OST I found it to be quite standard. Similar to season one’s ending theme, the ending theme titled, “Taishō.a” by anNina was also relaxing and peaceful, but my reason for liking this theme over season one’s ending theme is that the theme of this song, seems to match the overall feeling of this season’s Anime adaptation, precisely. I admit, there were moments where I just skimmed over the ending theme to see another portion of the episode or the usual clip with Dark Rika and Hanyuu at points, but this ending to me seems to closely resemble the somber tone and mood that the show produces through its setting and characters. On the other hand, the OST in this show is standard to me, since it was already used in season one’s adaptation. There were a couple of different background soundtracks here and there, but they didn’t really stand out to me.
Although, I do praise Studio Deen for keeping in the best tracks from Season one.
And, as a quick compliment toward the sound department for the Anime, I really appreciate the fact there weren’t any signs of audio desynch age from the characters facial movements. Also the background character audio, doesn’t interfere with any plot discussion moments, which is another great step up from season one. The audio sync and background character audio issues bugged me in Higurashi’s first season, but thankfully with the incorporation of the new art style in the mix, this issue was avoided.
Though I found the background OST to be pretty bland and standard, I found the opening theme, ending theme, and voice acting to be the soundtrack portion’s greatest strength!
Animation: - C+ - 7.5
In terms of the art and animation quality in Higurashi: When They Cry Season 2, I find this to be a great step in the right direction. In season one there are moments where the characters looked deformed, and an instance when one of our protagonist’s being Rena Ryuguu’s body twists as if she was a piece of Laffy Taffy in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. However, does this season’s new art and animation style still hold up during the creepy and dark moments, and in my perspective of things, I believe it does, but not to the same degree as season one’s art style.
To many people, like myself, the art quality in Higurashi’s first season is rather off, but captured the lustful, and vicious lore that the show generated through its divided arcs. It’s what made Higurashi, Higurashi in a sense of its iconic, “Higurashi Laugh,” and mysterious, yet creepy, physically expressive emotions. And compared to season two, the art quality, although sharp and organized, most of the time, doesn’t seem to capture the same level of horror that the bad art of season one set up. Nevertheless, does this really hurt the series in the art style department, and my answer is no.
Although it doesn’t meet the same expectations of the art from the first season, and still has slight hiccups in the facial structure of certain characters, I still believe there are scenes which produce the same level of terror. For example,
Example - Episode 08 – Massacre Arc: In episode 8, during her chat with Takano and Irie, Rika snaps and starts sharing hate felt remarks to these characters for not helping her, help out Satoko during her abusive struggle against Teppei Houjo. If you take a look at Rika’s facial expressions during this moment, it exhibits this same sense of horror and terror from season one’s facial art features. I mean just look at her, she looks like a TROLL!
Other examples where this bad art pops up in the story would be during the other characters’ negative emotional moments. Like Satoko’s depressive state, Takano’s cries of fear montage, and even in some of moments where the characters reflect upon scenes from the past worlds.
With all the character art style choices aside, how do I feel about the animation, and background elements of season two? Well, where season two’s animation department shines most compared to season one, would be through its animation, and background elements. Although there are scenes where some of the facial structures of characters seemed to be misplaced during small discussions, I found the animation to be better than the first season’s usage of animation, in these categories. One example that I found, where the animation looked great in terms of its predecessor would be in
Example 1 - Episode 6: episode six where Rika is in some paranormal dimension, and discusses about the instances from all of the other worlds she has lived in and experienced. And for a typical CGI hater that Mr. Z is, I actually liked seeing the past dimensions through these fragments of time.
It produced some sign of engagement as Rika told her tale and her overall goal in the series to the viewer, or Hanyuu for those who like to spoil the fun.
And not to beat a dead horse, but the facial expressions during the chilling moments in season two seem a bit refreshing, and new. I felt that using this new direction in art style gives the show a new way to express certain emotions, and that if they were to keep the old art form, it could have been repetitious, or an excuse to use old tricks for the sake of the Horror mood, to some viewers.
Although there are definitely errors in the animation and art quality in this season, I found that most of the time, season two was able to avoid a lot of common mistakes with their new art and animation direction, that mostly, season one failed to fix.
Enjoyment: - B - 8
Personally, while watching season two of the series I was really looking forward to learning about the answers to these questions we all had during season one. Although, I have mixed emotions with how this part of the Higurashi series turned out, I found some enjoyment out of it. However, we must come to terms with ourselves here. Does this season have its flaws? Yes, yes it does. And obviously this is the part where I would question recommending the Anime, but since this is Higurashi’s answer to the question arcs of season one, asking myself the question of recommendation to my audience should be a no brainer. Nonetheless, if I wanted to change anything from this season to make it a tad bit better than what would I change? Well…honestly, the only way I would fix this series would be by…
List of reasons, possibly three ways at most.
1.) Fixing the art quality in some of the character’s facial expressions since they seem to still have some issues.
2.) Piecing together some of the Takano backstory bits in their proper format since switching from her childhood flashback to the present was kind of unorganized to me.
3.) And possibly moving some of the big chunk of information given about the syndrome into two separate episodes while disregarding some of the comedic bits that hold no weight to them would be a good solution.
Nevertheless this season provided me with answers to the questions that I had about season one’s adaptation during my re-watch of it, and I wouldn’t mind giving it another re-watch some time in the near future.
Closing:
Well, for our first Heist, I’d like to say we completed a good chunk of it. You’re also probably expecting me to discuss about seeing Rika or Hanyuu due to the events of Case Journal Episode 02. Sadly, that won’t happen for now since I have something that must be done first, if you recall Hanyuu’s message from the prior Case Journal. However, I can leave you off by showing you what you all wanted most, and that’s the results based off my ranking system. Without further ado, here’s what yours truly believes the second season of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni deserves.
Overall Score = C+
